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Real Life
Adventurers

Wilbur Smith's rip roaring real-life endeavours around the world have inspired millions – from getting lost in the Kalahari to becoming trapped in an Antarctic slaughterhouse –experience the extraordinary adventures which have inspired his fiction, and find out
more about those who have followed in his footsteps.

Vertigo

Vertigo

Wilbur and Niso Smith Foundation award-winning author of Cave Diver, author and journalist Jake Avila recalls covering a BASE jumping story in Malaysia.

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The Old Man of the Rain

The Old Man of the Rain

Investigative Reporter and author of The Killing Gene, Edward Davey, recalls his time exploring the practise of voodoo in West Africa

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Crash

Crash

A real-life aviation firefighter adventure from author Bill Swiggs

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Ship Ablaze

Ship Ablaze

David Gilman, author of the Master of War series and shortlistee for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, writes about his early experiences as a firefighter - and the perils of a ship fire.

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Battle Ready

Battle Ready

Ollie Ollerton, Star of SAS: Who Dares Wins and former Special Forces soldier, reflects on one of his first adventures – a trip to a circus as a child that went catastrophically wrong.

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To Seek a Supergrass

To Seek a Supergrass

Investigative reporter and author of The Killing Gene, E.M.Davey, recalls how an investigation into a major corruption case turned into a hunt for one of Brazil's most infamous men

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Lost in the Kalahari

Lost in the Kalahari

Wilbur and his wife set out on a spontaneous trip across the Kalahari desert in search of mysterious ruins, but find themselves, in Wilbur’s words, ‘never lost – but occasionally unsure of our exact whereabouts’.

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This place is like Hell

This place is like Hell

Wilbur digs deep for observations from his time spent working and researching in a South African gold mine, where the fear of tunnel collapse lurks around every corner.

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The Rhodesian Bush War

The Rhodesian Bush War

Writing by day and conscripted into the Rhodesian Bush War by night, Wilbur sees conflict in his homeland first hand.

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On the Skeleton Coast

On the Skeleton Coast

We join Wilbur as a young man on Namibia’s Skeleton Coast. Having successfully scrounged up a job on one of the fishing vessels that plies Walvis Bay, he soon finds that he might have gotten more than he bargained for. . .

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Whaling in the Antarctic

Whaling in the Antarctic

A seafaring adventure quickly becomes a nightmare, as a young Wilbur finds himself trapped in a floating Antarctic abattoir, steeped in blood, putrefaction and death.

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